With the cooler weather setting in, the cold and flu season is upon us. There’s nothing worse than getting sick, especially right before a key event! Here are our Top Five Tips for looking after your immune system and staying well this winter.

1. Get your 2 fruit and 5 veggie serves in each day

Vitamins and minerals are important for a huge range of reactions within the body such as growth and repair, muscle function, energy metabolism and protection from free radical damage. If we don’t get enough of certain nutrients, our health and performance suffers. It also increases your risk of getting sick. That doesn’t mean you need to start sucking back the multivitamins.

Focus on getting a variety of nutrients each day from fresh fruits and vegetables. The more colours, the better to ensure you’re getting a wide range of important, sickness busting vitamins and minerals.

Keep up your daily dose of 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables during...

Now more than ever it’s important to eat well and look after ourselves. As a dietitian, I feel like it's my mission to help you through this crazy time with practical, easy to understand and implement advice, no matter where you are! In the best way I know how – nutrition!

In a world of uncertainty, sometimes it can help to focus on something. Why not use this time wisely to learn and implement some of the foundations of healthy eating?!

So here are My Top 5 Tips for Staying Healthy During Isolationto celebrate the launch of my new online course! Watch the replay from the LIVE recording or read through the summary below

1. Eat Well

A lot of people are stressed about gaining weight at the moment, coming out of this in a bad place and undoing all of their hard work building fitness from the start of the season. But now is not the time to crash diet. Or put too much pressure on ourselves for that matter! It's not the time to put...

This obsession with the ‘detox’ seems to come from a place of wanting to drastically reset our body. Usually following a period of indulgence in high fat and sugary foods, and probably a few too many wines or beers as well. The idea of a detox is plucked up as a saving grace as if days or weeks of denying our bodies whole foods packed with nutrients can be rapidly undone. Unfortunately, to be the bearer of bad news on this one, that’s not quite how our digestive system functions. On the flip side, you can save yourself a whole lot of money, and discomfort, by steering clear of these fads.

Clearing up the science

When it comes to toxins entering our body from food or drink, the systems we have in place to remove them are already quite good at their job without the help of a juice cleanse! Whether it’s alcohol, medication, environmental toxins or bacteria from food, there is a scientific explanation for how these toxins are eliminated. Although I could talk for...

When men think of healthy eating for some reason, they automatically think they have to eat salad. But we’re here to tell you, you can be healthy without having to resort to boring rabbit food!

Men and women aren’t that different when it comes to daily nutrition. Yes, men tend to have more muscle mass which increases their requirements compared to a female. But nutritionally speaking, men still need a wide variety of vitamins and minerals to tick along each day. If you’re a ‘skip the veggies, pile on the meat’ type of guy, don’t worry we’re not about to suggest you turn your phone off and lock yourself at home eating chicken, broccoli and rice to meet your goals!

We surveyed all the men in our lives and found some common themes when it came to eating habits. Based on these findings, here are our Top Tips to Eating Healthy as a Dude while still balancing life and the bro-code.

Common Man Trend No. 1 – Skimping on the veggies

As life gets busy, eating well can easily take a back-seat when there’s tight deadlines and a million other things to do! But when you’re busy, stressed and time-poor, it’s even more important to eat well to get the most out of your day.

Food is fuel for our bodies and our brain, so if you want to maximise your mental performance and get even more productive, try implementing my Top 5 Tips for Mental Performance today!

1. Choose low GI, whole grains (avoiding white)

Choosing lower GI carbohydrate sources such a whole-grain bread and cereals, brown rice, legumes etc. slows the release of glucose (sugar) into the bloodstream and your brain. This avoids those sugar highs and lows, instead drip-feeding the release of fuel to your brain so you can focus better, with more clarity for longer.

2. Include oily fish at least 3 x per week

Oily fish such as salmon, tuna, herring, mackerel are a great source of omega-3 fats which are critical for brain function...

Now that the colder months are upon us, it’s time to be proactive with our nutrition for the best immune system defence.

For active people, immune function plays a role not only in fighting off infections but also in promoting tissue repair to recover from exercise and injury (1). To function properly, the immune system requires lots of nutrients – both macro and micronutrients. For an athlete under heavy training load, requirements are even higher putting you at risk of a suppressed immune system if you’re not meeting your needs.

To help you stay well over the colder months, we’ve put together a few key points to keep you firing on all cylinders this winter!

1. Rest and Recovery is Key

Regardless of the type or intensity, exercise places stress on the body – meaning your immune system has to work harder to build and repair damaged tissue (1). Moderate training loads can be protective against illness. Whereas heavy training loads, particularly with...

Fruits and vegetables naturally grow in cycles and ripen during a certain season each year. Purchasing your fruits and vegetables when they naturally ripen is called ‘eating seasonally’, and eating with the seasons has some serious perks to it.

1. Bang for your buck

Choosing seasonal produce can help you get the most value out of your dollar. Fruits and vegetables picked during their season are in peak supply and this means the cost of growing, harvesting and transporting produce is much lower. If your produce is sourced locally from Australian farmers, the cost of transporting and storing the crops is reduced too. All of these savings are passed on to you, the consumer. For example, buying berries when they are in season is much friendlier on the wallet than buying in their offseason when prices can double or even triple!

2. Tastier

Non-seasonal produce typically must be harvested before it is ripe, cooled to stall ripening, stored and transported significant...

Feeling sad, moody or a bit low? We all do from time to time. Did you know your gut can have a role in your mental health?

A number of studies have confirmed a close link between our gut bacteria and our brain; ever heard of the gut-brain axis? The gut microbiota (bacteria) greatly impacts our brains physiology, influencing our behaviour and response to stress. Research shows that a plant-rich diet high in probiotics and prebiotics helps to increase the richness and diversity of our gut microbiota and aids in our stress response and mental health. So cool!

How can you eat for a happy life?

To promote balanced moods and feelings of well-being:

Focus on a plant-rich diet including a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts & seeds. Aim to fill half of your plate with salad and veggies at lunch and dinner.